The present invention relates to a device for removing excess portions of the interior the dough from food products, such as bagels, which have been cut in half. The ability to scoop out the excess dough from the interior of a bagel can greatly decrease the number of calories and carbohydrates in a bagel. Also, the ability to scoop out a bagel while using a manually operable tool device, instead of with one's fingers, provides a more sanitary method of removal than using one's fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,951 of Green, U.S. Pat. No. 1,347,307 of Thomas, U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,204 of Cash, U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,551 of Sherblom and U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,860 of Kuhlman each describe food utensils with undesirable inflection points between the respective working portion and the respective handles.
Neither Green '951 nor Thomas '307 have a scoop portion connected to a stem portion, further connected to a handle portion, each having downward facing concave curvatures, where no inflection point is present.
If one takes any spoon like Green '951's and turn it upside down, the scoop is faced concavely downward but the handle is bowed convexly upward, unlike the handle of the present invention which is easy to grasp because it bows concavely downward with the scoop. That's because any spoon like Green '951's has a curve for the scoop, which changes by inflection to a reverse curvature at the point where it meets the handle. Hence it extends uncomfortably upward in a concavity when the scoop portion is turned upside down, with an upwardly extending convexity. Turning a spoon upside down, such as that of Green '951, will also create a force at the inflection point during a scooping action, which will cause it to snap and eventually break off. This is because the handle structure and angle is not designed for the force required to perform a bagel scoop function. The spoon of Green '951, is designed specifically for an upward scooping motion, not a downward scooping motion as in the bagel scooper of the present invention.
According to standard geometric mathematical definitions, there is a definition number “5” under “inflection” in the AMERICAN COLLEGE DICTIONARY, Clarence L. Barnhart, Editor, Random House, NY, circa 1955 copyright, as follows:
“Math. a change of curvature from convex to concave or vice versa”.
The cited prior art of Green '951 and Thomas '307 has that reverse curvature point of inflection in any embodiment, but the bagel scooper of the present invention does not.
For example, Green '951 teaches using its serrated spoon instrument more for scraping food, such as corn for people with poor or no teeth. However, the reference actually does not teach the use of scooping interior dough by rearward pulling, such as bagel dough.
Green '951 is concerned with an upwardly facing shallow concave bowl with serrated teeth to advance forwardly against fruit and vegetable pulp. Its concave bowl extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the handle of the spoon.
Use of Green '951 to scoop bagels is unsatisfactory, because its scoop is axially aligned with the handle. It does have the downward facing concave bowl, preferably approximately at a 90° angle, for pulling the excess dough out. Additionally, the inflection point located between the spoon portion and the handle is subject to bending or breakage, unlike the consistently concave scoop and handle of the present invention.
Green '951's upwardly facing concave bowl hinders its effectiveness in scooping bagels.
Thus, Green '951 teaches that the serrated edge not only grasps the food but cuts it in a forward motion as well. Therefore use of Green '951's upwardly extending serrated spoon instrument, whether used right side up or upside down, is not suitable for use with the delicate wall of the bagel, due to the forward motion of the serrated spoon, and the detrimental effects of ripping the delicate bagel wall.
Thus, the general use of Green '951's upwardly extending serrated spoon, in conjunction with scooping bagels innards of dough, would be suspect as to its effectiveness or expectation of success, unless the upward orientation of the concave portion were reversed downwardly, as in the bagel scoop of the present invention, preferably substantially perpendicular to the handle, so that it can scooped rearwardly.
Simply using a serrated spoon with bagel scooping would be dangerous because the forward pushing motion could cause the spoon to slip right into the hand of the user holding and stabilizing the bagel, whereas holding the bagel itself in front of the bagel scooper and pulling rearward away from the holding hand of the user would not cause any slipping or possible cutting of the user's hand or ripping of the delicate bagel wall.
Additionally, the hand-held manipulation of the bagel scooper allows the user to remove unwanted dough from a bagel without physical stress or strain to user's hand or wrist, avoiding carpal tunnel problems.
The use of the downwardly extending scoop recess in the present invention for bagel scooper, with downward and rearward pulling, would be discouraged, if not clearly taught away from the spoon of Green '951.
Among related patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,991 of Tracy, which discloses a device for cutting and loosening dough from a piece of baked goods, such as a bagel, which includes a handle, and an open blade structure, to enable scooping and removal of dough. The blade structure of Tracy '991 is attached to a cross bar, which is attached to a stem, which, in turn, is attached to the handle. There are five different parts to this structure (a blade, crossbar, stem, handle and set screw).
However, as noted in the drawing Figures of Tracy '991, Tracy is not capable of scooping and removing cut dough, since the dough cut by an open blade structure having a peripheral cutting edge adjacent to an open recess between the blade cutting edge and stem attaching the blade to the handle. For example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Tracy '991, the cut dough excised by curved blade 14 falls through the open semi-circular recess hole provided between the cutting edge 22 of semi-circular blade 14 and the horizontal cross bar 32. Tracy '991 requires the additional step of manually removing the pieces of cut dough from the bagel, which defeats the purpose of providing a tool for cutting excess dough from the interior of a sliced bread product, such as a bagel.
Other food scraping articles having an open blade with a cutting edge defining a recess through which food passes include U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,516 of Sinclair for cooking an egg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,447,301 of Wright for a corn niblet scraper and U.S. Pat. No. 1,991,267 of Waldron for a bean pod cutter.
Among other related patents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,419 of Sonkin, which discloses a bagel cutter with a manually rotatable blade housing, having a pair of blades which scrape and cut excess bagel dough from the core of a sliced bagel. Like Tracy '991, Sonkin '419 cuts the core of the bagel but doesn't provide the ability to scoop out the core dough of the bagel, which still leaves that task to be done by the fingers of the user, which can be unsanitary.
Both Tracy '991 and Sonkin '419 require the use of another second device, to remove the unused dough scraped within the core of the bagel. Therefore, the present invention provides the utility of both the scooping and removing actions required.
Therefore, neither Tracy '991 nor Sonkin '419 describe a hand held bagel scooper for both scooping and removing excess dough from the inside of a bread product, such as a cut bagel.
Other rotating food scraping machines are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,998 of Schwartz, for a rotating bagel coring device and U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,193 of Valenti, for a rotating bagel scooper. Additional related prior art patents also include U.S. Pat. No. 644,732 of Crandall, which describes a corn cutting spoon, including a bottom mid portion of the concave spoon head being interrupted by a serrated cutting edge, which allows the user to scrape corn niblets loose from a corn cob, by a rearward pulling motion. However, the cutting edge of Crandall '732 is located away from the leading edge, since the exterior of a corn cob is tubular, with no concave recess within which to manipulate the tool.
Other spoon-shaped articles having a medial cutting edge at a recess thereof include U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,850 of Farba.
However, the aforementioned reference actually do not teach the use of a bagel scooper which both scrapes and removes bagel dough from the inner core of a sliced bagel.
The bagel scooper of the present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art references, such as the inability to remove the scraped dough material from a hollowed out bagel. Therefore, the prior art patents are unsatisfactory, because they do not have the means for both scraping and removing the excess bagel dough. The configurations of the cutting edges of the prior art, as well as the rotatable devices, hinder the effectiveness of scraping and removing excess bagel dough with further manual manipulation of the scraped bagel dough.
Thus, the aforementioned references teach devices which in general are not suitable for both scraping and removing excess bagel dough from the interior core of a sliced bagel or other food product.
The use of the concave scoop with a downward curvature and a combined blade and scoop at the leading edge of the concave member, as disclosed in the bagel scooper of the present invention, would be discouraged, if not clearly taught away from the prior art.